Roughly 120 people attended this year’s Oyster Bay Garden Tour hosted by the Oyster Bay Main Street Association. According to Executive Director Jaqueline Cipolla, roughly $17,000 were raised. The annual tour began nearly a decade ago.
The Oyster Bay Main Street Association’s mission is to preserve Oyster Bay’s history and beautify and revitalize the hamlet’s downtown area. Money raised from garden tour ticket sales goes toward beautification efforts in Oyster Bay’s downtown. These efforts include landscaping each spring through November, a cleanup of the downtown area and additional decorations like hanging baskets.
“Anything we can do to help make the town more beautiful and to preserve the history and really boost the economy here,” Cipolla said. “That’s what we do.”
Usually held on a Thursday in June, this year’s tour took place June 18. Cipolla said that each year, the tour grows, with more people attending.
“Once people come once,” she said, “a lot of times they come back and they bring their friends because they have so much fun.”
Garden City resident Bernadette Lane attended the event with some friends, who she has known since their time at Locust Valley High School. This was Lane’s first time on the tour.
“They were like,” she said of her friends, who have attended each of the last three years, “‘we’re coming every year’.”
Each year, the tour features private gardens belonging to residents within the town. Three gardens across Center Island, Mill Neck and Locust Valley were chosen for this year. According to Cipolla, the tour has never featured the same garden twice. She explained that the gardens are chosen largely through networking, asking previous participants if they know of anyone that would be interested, or taking volunteers.
“A lot of times,” Cipolla said, “they have great recommendations.”
Lane said that she would attend the tour again next year and described the residential garden in Center Island as “so beautiful.”
“That’s what’s so fun,” she said, “just being able to see all the new grounds, and everybody puts out little bites to eat. It’s just so nice.”
The Oyster Bay Main Street Association also works with business owners to update their facades and signs through a grant program, makes design recommendations to interested business owners and helps connect new business owners with the resources they need in the community.
Cipolla praised Danielle Olesen and Colleen McKean, members of the association’s Beautification Committee, for their work in organizing the tour.
“If it weren’t for them, it wouldn’t be what it is today,” she said, “because they really do everything for this event. I can’t speak highly of them enough. They’re an amazing team together.”
The tour will be held again in June 2027.
